


Shade of Grey

by LigerCat



Series: Shades [1]
Category: Phineas and Ferb
Genre: Alternate Universe - Age Changes, Alternate Universe - Fusion, Alternate Universe - Monster Hunters, Alternate Universe - Supernatural (TV) Fusion, Gen, Hunter Ferb, Implied/Referenced Character Death, Monster Hunters, Past Character Death, Vampire Hunters, Vampires, ghost - Freeform, supernatural universe
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-12
Updated: 2019-08-25
Packaged: 2020-08-19 19:08:04
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,639
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20214778
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LigerCat/pseuds/LigerCat
Summary: Vampires always drank blood, human or animal.And ghosts always turned evil. It didn't matter how pure and innocent the person was when they were alive, death lowly sucked all that goodness out of them.No ifs, ands, or buts about it.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Don't own anything.

While the supernatural wasn't black and white, some elements of it were.

For example, vampires always drank blood, human or animal.

And ghosts always turned evil. It didn't matter how pure and innocent the person was when they were alive, death lowly sucked all that goodness out of them.

No ifs, ands, or buts about it.

Or so Ferb had believed.

When he'd first seen the boy staring at him with fear in his eyes, he had thought it was a victim. Ferb had called out to him that everything was alright now. The vampires were dead.

The boy had frowned before flickering out of the mortal plane.

To say Ferb had been surprised was an understatement. But the farmhouse the vampires had been held up in was an old one. A ghost hanging around, while unusual, wasn't impossible.

He'd made a mental note to find out who the boy was and help him move on, forcibly. Then, he started dragging the bodies into a pile to burn. If he was lucky, the boy's bones would be in the house and go up with the vamps.

Ferb didn't give the ghost another thought until one of the headless bodies he'd just piled up was dragged from the pile.

He'd stopped and watched as the corpse was manipulated like a doll. Her blood-stained dress smoothed out by an invisible hand. Her arms folded across her chest.

His eyebrows had shut up on his forehead when a head seemingly floated into the room and was gently lined up with her severed neck.

The boy had solidified into view as he brushed her dark hair away from her face, his lips moving as he spoke words that didn't carry.

Ferb remembered cutting off her head. She'd been younger in appearance than the others. About the same age as the boy ghost kneeling next to her.

He'd felt sick. The scene was so human had he would have believed they were two humans, did he not know the truth.

Since the boy was still, he'd taken the moment to really look at him. The clothes were old. At least last century. His red hair was long and messy. His nose, long and pointed and covered with freckles.

But his eyes. The boy's blue eyes were filled with a life no ghost should possess. When those eyes raised up to meet his, he had felt they were staring into his own soul.

"Can you bury her?" The question had seemed to come from everywhere and nowhere.

Between the oddness of the request and the way the boy's eyes had hypnotized him, Ferb had nodded.

"Thank you." The words had still floated in the air when the boy disappeared.

Ferb had carried her body and head outside before lighting the fire. He couldn't bury her there so he had laid her in his trunk on a sheet he'd taken from the farmhouse.

After he had pulled onto the street, he'd almost crashed into a tree when the boy materialized in the passenger seat.

Ghosts were not supposed to be able to leave where they were tethered. Unless he was tethered the girl in the trunk, he shouldn't have been able to be there.

"My name's Phineas," the boy had offered. "Are you going to tell me yours?"

Having figured he would move on once the body was dealt with, Ferb had muttered his name in reply.

He didn't expect the boy to reappear in his car after he had buried the girl. He didn't expect him to follow him back to his motel room either.

It shouldn't have been possible from what Ferb knew about ghosts.

But it also shouldn't have been possible for the boy to have such kind, life-filled eyes when he'd been dead for a century.

Staring at the ghost, Ferb had a feeling his own life was about to become more interesting.


	2. Chapter 2

Ferb pushed his black hair away from his forehead as he leaned closer to the bathroom mirror and examined the roots. The temperate dropped suddenly. Not by much, but enough to be noticeable.

"I know I've been dead for a while, but I don't think green hair became natural in the last several decades."

Ferb let go of his hair, hiding the unnatural color of his roots. "Last I checked, ghosts are trapped in the place they died or tied to an object. Neither of which appear to apply to you."

The boy frowned, his form flickering before vanishing.

A thin layer of frost spread across the glass, the temperate dropping further.

Reaching into his pocket, Ferb pulled out the small canister of salt he had placed there once he realised the boy was sticking around. If the ghost was going to show his true intentions, he wasn't going to be caught unarmed.

The ghosted appeared right in front of him. Ferb flinched back.

Swinging his legs back and forth through the cabinet he was sitting on, the boy looked thoughtful. "I am locked onto an object. You just haven't found it yet." He smiled. "It's like hide and seek or... or that hot and cold game! I could give you hints when you get close." He jumped down, disappearing again, even as he kept talking. "I haven't played that in forever. It'll be fun."

Ferb blinked. This was by far the oddest case he had taken. And it had not even been about the ghost. The vampires were dead. He should have been able to move on to the next case by now, instead of playing babysitter to a ghost with a child's mentality.

The frost started to fade. Ferb took that as a sign to put away his salt. Turning off the light, he left the bathroom. The boy wasn't in sight.

"You're cold."

Ferb paused, mid-step. "How am I to find this object when I know nothing about you?"

"You'll know it when you see it." The singsong tone flowed from nowhere.

Rolling his eyes, Ferb started walking around the motel room. It had to be here, or else the ghost wouldn't be.

"Warmer."

Ferb kept walking.

"Hot. Aw, no, now you're cold again."

He stepped back. The only thing there was his bloodstained coat that he had dropped to the floor. It seemed past the point of saving, but merely throwing it in the trash was far from an option.

He picked up the coat, receiving an excited yell of 'burning up' from the ghost. After glancing around for said ghost, Ferb turned the jacket over in his hands.

"The blood?" Some of it was from the female vampire Phineas had been so concerned about.

"Nope." While the 'p' was popped in a childish manner, the word sounded strained. "Check the pockets."

Frowning slightly, Ferb did so. He'd already taken out his backup lighter, the only thing he regularly kept in there. Reaching into the second pocket, his eyebrows rose as his fingers touched something cool. He grasped the item and pulled it out.

Holding it up, he stared at the simple chain with what appeared to be a handmade, heart-shaped pendant dangling from it. "This?"

"It was for her." Phineas flickered into existence in front of him. Instead of looking like the young teenager that could easily pass for being alive, his skin was pale, the old fashioned pair of overalls he'd been wearing were covered with blood that must come from the gaping hole on the side of his neck. Bloodshot blue eyes met Ferb's. "Isa—The girl I asked you to bury. I was gonna give it to her when they grabbed us."

Ferb swallowed, the chain in his fingers feeling heavier.

"I guess I wasn't what they were looking for. She was." Phineas' eyes closed, his form flickering back to its normal, pre-death state. "Are you gonna burn it?"

Looking between the boy and the necklace, Ferb hesitated. "Do you want me to?"

He shrugged. "I'm a ghost, you're suppose to burn it, aren't you?"

Technically, yes. As a hunter, that was exactly what Ferb was supposed to do. Despite that, something told him not to.

Ferb rubbed his fingers over the pendant. There was a little blood on the chain. She must have been wearing it when he beheaded her.

"No." Ferb's answer surprised himself.

Phineas' eyes popped open.

"I'm not going to." He'd find a way to clean the chain. Having a ghost on his side could be beneficial, and Phineas hardly followed the standard for ghosts. Ferb might discover something hunters had missed for as long as they'd been hunting ghosts. "As long as you stay benign."

Phineas' eyes were comically wide. "Seriously?"

Steeling himself to his decision, Ferb nodded.

"And I get to stay with you?"

Another nod. How else would Ferb keep an eye on him?

"Thank you!" Phineas vanished only to appeared right before him, wrapping his arms around Ferb.

It wasn't a hug, not really. Ferb couldn't feel the arms holding onto him, even as goosebumps shot up on his skin where they should have touched. The closest he could compare it to was being wrapped up in a cold blanket.

All in all, odd but not as uncomfortable as he would have expected a ghost hug to be.

Phineas backed off. Grinning as he blinked out of view.

Ferb shook his head in bemusement. This would be a hard one to explain to any other hunters he might run across.

But for now, he needed to clean the chain. It should be long enough to be hidden under his shirt. If not, he'd assure that it was only the pendant Phineas was connected to and buy a longer chain for it.

He turned to head back to the bathroom. Hopefully, the blood would come off with the cheap soap the motel had provided.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ferb dyes his hair because green would be too eye-catching for his job.


End file.
